Guest Post 5: The Art of Birdwatching in China by Sid Francis

The latest guest post on Birding Beijing comes from bird-rich Sichuan Province, home to Giant Pandas and a vast array of birdlife, much of which is difficult to find anywhere else.  Sid and Meggie Francis are well known in China birding circles (see their Sichuan thread, including some stunning photos, on Birdforum and also their blog) and since I have been in China I have been following their birding exploits with some envy!  Sid kindly agreed to write a post about his general impressions of birding in China and I know that, if you have ever experienced birding in this wonderful country, you will relate to a lot of what he says!

The Art of Birdwatching in China

As a Brit that has lived and birded China for the last eight years I’ve of course had to adapt and accept the ways of my new home. However an existence around here, especially for those who’ve been raised and groomed to the norms of well-ordered and predictable western urbanization, still throws up a daily array of the highly unexpected. Events that would seem bizarre and even eccentric back home – can seem almost daily out here.

Eccentric China even creeps into our birding lives – usually giving the birder an extra dose of problem solving activity. Birding in my neck of the woods – Sichuan – is so rich and rewarding, but as the old adage goes – nothing good comes for free. Those complications associated with living in China sometimes feels like the price I pay for my birds.

To hold onto full birding sanity I recommend the China based birder reflects on their situation; in my case the reflection follows three major principles.

The Three Principles

1. Scientific reflection – this is for the birder who can disassociate the situation through a single focus point of the bird and just the bird; get that tick. Back home one uses this kind of discipline in situations such as gull watching on city rubbish dumps – areas so horrible that no sane person could ever extract any aesthetic pleasure from such a visit.  Of course for the focused enthusiast the birding scientist takes over – the simple recording enough to convert any dump into a pleasant and rewarding location. Developing China can also throw up like situations. I suppose an example would be birding at sites that have been developed for tourism and now suffer vast crowds of screaming visitors.  Amazingly, if habitat is left, birds survive and habituate to these situations, but be prepared for enjoyment killing factors that can rival anything a refuse dump can throw up – crowd noise that sometimes rivals Wembley on FA cup day, can be enough to make many birders run!!!! And as a strange and interesting creature bedecked in binoculars, scope and long lenses expect the masses to start watching you – the twitcher becoming twitched. The scientist, who can detach themselves from annoyances that could drive others a little crazy, always wins out in these types of situation – but for those of a less devote and moderate nature, principle number two could be of more use.

2. Philosophic reflection – A big problem with birding in China is finding areas that are not in the process of being turned into some sort of huge muddy hole!  I only get to my further flung birding haunts once or twice a year – and am always in fear of finding a new, habitat destroying, work project in progress – even in the reserves.  To survive frustrating situations like these I search after my inner philosopher, who works on the following principle – as much as I would like the developing world to come to a stop, at least in respect to ravages of habitat loss, I’ve got to be realistic and realise that change is the ongoing factor that has molded and formed all from the year dot!

However the philosopher in me also tells me that we can influence man-made change, which brings us onto a less documented Chinese change – a more informed public opinion with regard to the environment – something that hopefully will be the foundation for real protection of Wild China.  Wildlife is becoming part of the daily media.  Chinese TV has a channel that broadcasts wildlife documentaries; programmes are being made on Chinese birds, news stations run stories on wildlife topics and have exposed illegal wild-bird trading and from the wealth of on-line activity we can see that the numbers of birders and bird photographers are growing – and many young people are developing new concepts with regard to protecting their natural heritage.

Although things, especially when one takes into account the pace of the new development, can look awful here, the philosophic approach helps us to realise that all is not black and that there is hope for the future.  But however scientific or philosophic we are in our outlook sometimes the odd case of insanity means we can still find ourselves throwing up our hands to heaven for help – which brings us to………….

3.Religous reflection – when you’re close to giving up you can always pray.

A friend of mine told me about a comment she heard from a Chinese acquaintance when she commented on how cruel she thought the local practice of caging birds in tiny cages – which was answered with – “but if they weren’t put into cages how would they learn to talk?”

This kind of attitude turns me towards the religious – but luckily I don’t run into that kind of person on a daily basis and don’t have to resort (that much) to prayer – maybe just the odd gaze to heaven after a mad encounter with a local driver or two!!!!

If all truth is told, one of my pleasures with China birding is overcoming the obstacles – those bad roads , exploring past the development and habitat destruction to find that wealth of new birding areas that lie along those small country tracks.  After living in China, going back home is totally boring; here I have the Tibetan Plateau a few hour’s drive from my home.  Eccentric China can be a total pain in the butt – but thinking over those eight years in this country, using my powers of reflection,  I can also see its eccentricity is a factor, when having beaten back those daily obstacles that too often are thrown in front of us poor birders, that can make this country such a fascinating, “don’t give up”, challenge.

About the author:  Sid and Meggie Francis are a Chinese English birding couple living in Chengdu.  For the last 4 years birding has been their main occupation but they also work as conservation and bird tourist consultants.  Before going 100% into birds they have dabbled in all sorts, including: Falkland Island Shepherd, Red Cross refugee worker, Kinndergarten Teaching and Civil Engineering. However they are soon to embark on their biggest project – this summer they will be parents for the first time.